Photography: Takumi Ota
A detached house standing in the high density residential area in Tokyo.
The site for this project was one of the 5 subdivided areas with the North side facing the street, and the other 3 sides neighboring the
other houses. Within these difficult circumstances the client wished for a living room on the South side full of sun light. The core of this residential housing is the hexagon volume on the Southern side of the site. This shape resulted in a plan where sunlight continuously shines into the living room from dawn till dusk. Creating a minimum parking space needed for a compact car and by sliding the volume of the structure to the North as far as possible, we were able to keep a planting ground and to efficiently let light into the room. For the plan of each floor and its traffic lines, the roof and the beam which can be seen at the ceiling of the 2nd floor, the existence of this hexagon structure works as a strong element to categorize the function, structure and design of the entire house.